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Formal Hall is the name given to a formal evening meal at any college in the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham, open to all members of the college and their guests. Different colleges have varying policies on formals: some hold them several times a week, while others do so quite rarely. Formal Halls are separate from informal evening meals, which most colleges hold daily. The largest formals are believed to be at Van Mildert College, Durham, where 440 guests are usually present.
Terminology
The meal is often referred to as Formal, or in Cambridge Hall. Usage varies depending on circumstance, however. Since some of the larger colleges have both a large dining hall and a canteen-style dining room (often called the Buttery); in these cases informal evening meals are taken in the Buttery and formal meals in the hall, and the term Hall is used uniquely to refer to the latter meal. On the other hand, colleges with only one dining room may often use Hall to mean the informal meal and Formal for the other one.
Traditions
Some colleges have elaborate traditions, while others are more relaxed. The wearing of gowns at formals is compulsory at some colleges and various other traditions are usually observed, including grace said in Latin. The wearing of gowns may sometimes constitute the only dress code; in other cases formal wear (for example a lounge suit for men or equivalent for women) is required in addition to, or instead of, the gown.
The tradition of pennying is long established in most Cambridge, Oxford and Durham colleges, although it often carries the risk of possible expulsion from the meal by staff members. A variation of the tradition is found at University College, Durham, where corks are used instead of pennies. (Some students at Oxford, at least, will in fact have never heard of pennying, though).
Almost all Oxford and Cambridge college formal halls include a High Table, exclusively for Fellows of the college and their guests, with students eating at the lower tables. The high table is often raised above the floor level of the hall. A few of the more modern colleges (for example Linacre College and Wolfson College, Oxford) have discontinued (or never had) this practice, in order to promote equality between fellows and students.
Formal Hall is the preferred venue in Oxford colleges for crew-dates, a notorious system of celebration especially associated with the period after Summer Eights and Torpids. Here college sports teams (usually one male and one female team) meet to eat and drink in Formal Hall, and on the whole blow off steam through binge-drinking. These are an excellent source of inter-collegiate socialising (one of the few examples where this will occur at Oxbridge outside of a club), and generally much fun is to be had by all involved (to the consternation of the High Table). The more famous crew-dates are to be had with the Oriel Men's First Boat (who often repair back to the famous Oriel rowing-room), and the St Peter's Women's Boats. A variation on the pennying tradition is shoeing — if there is a spillage resulting from an unsuccessful pennying attempt, or any another unsocial/drunken act, the Captain of the men's boat is obliged to remove his shoe. It is presented as a receptacle for the remains of the unpennied wine, which must then be drunk from the shoe by the pennying miscreant.
See also
Meals | University of Oxford | University of Cambridge | University of Durham
"Formal Hall"